CCM

Most stations play the top 40. Up until a week ago we listened to two such stations in the office. We catch the local Christian morning show until 10 when the preaching comes on and then we switch to the secular station for the rest of the day.

I liked this. The Christian station plays pretty up to the moment stuff from artists like Leeland, Relient K, and SuperChic[k] and it's a nice way to start of my morning. The DJs aren't so bad either. And the secular station plays a pretty good mix of right-now music and old-school classics.

But recently a coworker complained of hearing the top 40 and for the last week we've been tuned-in to a station that pretty much ignores the fact that albums have been released after the year 2000. Right now I'm listening to the Crayon Song, by Petra. I loved this song when I was eight.

Most of the songs have been from the year I turned 13. I remember them pretty vividly because was a lot of discussion over whether I would even be allowed to listen to such questionable albums as Jesus Freak (yes) and Much Afraid or Going Public (no).

One round of listening to such songs as Flood and Shine had me feeling nostalgic for junior high...twice in one hour has me glad it's my lunch break.

because I like to laugh

There's so much ambigouity in modern romance. Make your feelings unmistakable.

I can't quite envision the type of outfit one would wear this with.

This Love Meter Pendant reminds me of Relient K's mood ring song, but it's a little more to the point. Here are some other options for the thick headed.

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Yes, for €3.95 you too can order a succulent burger in a can. Don't wait! Order now.

Adventures in getting to work

After several unsucessful attempts at prying the car door open I went online and read that windshield wiper fluid will work and I remembered that my roommate had a spray bottle of the stuff in her car...which was also frozen shut.

But we had window cleaner in the house and that ended up getting the door open.
The roads were probably safer when my car was frozen shut.

After sliding halfway to work I realized I'd forgotten to take lunch (there's no way I'm taking a lunch break when I'm coming in 2½ hours late) so I stopped by a CVS to pick something up and their doors were frozen shut!

Ice Day!

I went outside to warm up my car this morning and discovered it was frozen shut.
So I'll be going into work once I can get it open.

I feel like I should be able to do something to wrench it open, but I haven't been able to. So I'm waiting till it warms a little and hoping that lets me get it open.

The saddest part is that my book is shut inside the car. Poor Huck Finn!

Hurray!

No more grayness. Still running into the side bar, still not centered. I'll figure that out later.

Ok, well, unfortunately I can't have the cool layout and comments...at least for the moment...so right now we have boring gray layout...

HTML

Ok, so I've figured out enough HTML to get this up, but I don't know how to make it fit the whole screen or how to stop it from running into the scroll bar...so this may come down soon. It's still kinda funny.

Leftovers

It's a good thing I've got a lot of residual happiness from the weekend, because this morning has done nothing to help my mood.

I forgot breakfast. I've had to make a million changes on a ton of ads. Worst, those amazing layouts I did? The printers offset the black from the color about an eight of an inch. Not professional looking at all!

That's still kinda funny though, because just as my boss finished telling one of the other guys about it, I walked in all upset, "Daaaan! Have you seen this?!" And Ray just laughed because no one else even noticed anything was off. Well, I bet the people I show my portfolio to would notice. So now my boss is going to have someone go around to the drop off points till we find one that isn't messed up so I can have a good copy for my portfolio. Have I mentioned I have the best boss ever?

But the weekend was good. It feels like forever since the Link has done anything. In the end I thought 27 Dresses was a little bit lame, but it was a ton of fun to hang out with all the girls and to see the infamous bridesmaid pantsuit. I wish I had a photo of us all dressed up, but we forgot to get one. The only picture taken was of all of us at the restaurant.

And Sunday I accidentally found a really hillariously cute shirt for my roommate's dog. I've been threatening to buy that dog clothing since Robin first mentioned wanting a dog and when I saw the little shirt in Wal-Mart I knew that it was the perfect time to carry out my promise. Picture's will follow soon.

Diotrephes and me.

I love Sunday nights, because youth group is a blast. I love the kids, just talking to them is a blast. I don't think I laugh that much any other day of the week.

The funny thing about youth group is that a lot of times I learn more about myself there than I learn in the service or in sunday school. Part of it is that Gabe and Caleb do an excellent job. Part of it is that discussing the bible with 12-13 year olds makes it clear how much of it I conveniently ignore.

We've been reading through 3 John the past couple of weeks. This week we focused on the verses 9-11.

"I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us. So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us. Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church. Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. "

And Caleb decided to illustrate the verses by having a couple leaders gossiping about people and another leader not welcoming anyone.

Well, I had no idea this was going on so I was slightly suprised to see Gabe not being his usual uber-friendly self and even more suprised to have Mallory start talking about how unprepared lessons have been - especially since it was done right in front of the kids.

But my reaction wasn't shock at her attitude or defense of lessons that I know have been good. It was much more lame than that. And it's just something I've been noticing...how frequently I go ahead and shut up about things I know aren't right. Big or small. I pretend it's fine, because it's easier.

All we can do is...

Since my car speakers are dying I have to get my music fix at home. It kind of annoys me because it gets in the way of things like conversations or any project that doesn't find me in the living room.

So I've got Ingrid Michaelson blasting from my tiny computer speakers, which actually pack enough of a punch to make the puppy quite jumpy. One of the songs on the playlist, not on her cd, is Keep Breathing. It's quite awkward to sing along to because while I feel empathy for where Ingrid is coming from when she writes

"The storm is coming but I don't mind.
People are dying, I close my blinds.
All that i know is I'm breathing now.
I want to change the world...instead I sleep.

I want to believe in more than you and me.
But all that I know is I'm breathing."

I can't help but feel her conclusion of "All we can do is keep breathing" is completely lame.

It reminds me of John Mayer's debacle Waiting on the World to Change. The slight difference being that while Ingrid Michaelson's tune sounds truly anguished for her lack of action, John Mayer's attitude seems to be, "Hey, I'm waiting for things to get better, what more do you want, punk?"

In the end though it's all the same. Whether it's waiting for someone else to change the world, or believing you should but can't change it. Even if it's believing you can change it...but don't.

You're not so smart

According to Newsweek (and University College London professor, Adrian Furnham) men are not as smart as they think they are and women all over the world under estimate their own intellectual abilities. But the oddest part of the study was that it wasn't just men over estimating and women downplaying their own intellegence. Men and women both think that their dads are smarter than their moms. If they have children men and women both think the boys are smarter than the girls.

:)

My favorite sweater died. The door to my room doesn't latch anymore. The speakers in my car play more crackle than they play music.

It's still a good morning. I did really well with the layouts of our magazine this issue. One of the benefits of working at the itsy-bitsy publishing house is that my boss let's me do pretty much what I want with our layouts and that's let me make them better than they were...but this time it's really at a whole other level. So much nicer. Plus, I even got some recognition for it. I can't even explain how spyched that makes me.

I'm even excited about our company lunch this afternoon and I hate company lunches. I don't even like the restaurant we're going to. Still happy about it.

Clarity

I've had an obsession since...always. Even before I really understood what made a design good..back when I actually found it confusing...it was still just this push to make things right, whatever that meant.
My friends found this irritating, especially if I criticized a professional artist, as I frequently did.
"You couldn't draw it better, Melody."
"Yes I could. I will."
And I'd be obsessed with figuring out how to make it better, for however long that took.


Then I got older and I noticed that the more expensive a product was the better designed the advertisements and the packages were. It really didn't take me long to notice that the things associated with church had a dime store quality about them. Sunday school pamphlets had cheap illustrations, bulletins are lucky to have correct spelling and punctuation - forget about being well typeset, posters with bible verses or little morals almost always featured children dressed about 10 years out of style. It really distressed me.

And then a friend invited me to Acquire the Fire (ATF) and I was blown away by it's inherent coolness. They designed cool t-shirts and hats without ripping off major ad campaigns. The people in photographs were dressed as if they'd walked out of a Delia's catalog. Maybe they had. So I was comforted that being a Christian didn't have to mean being an aesthetically challenged loser.

Fast forward ten years. My boss burst out laughing today because he saw I'd labeled a gradient fading from army green to eggplant purple as "nightmare". A church was doing a poll and was very specific on what the colors and font should be. The end result was that I could do nothing to save it. And this, combined with their poor wording, means that few people will notice their poll (which is designed to gauge the needs of the community), much less take the time to answer it.
The people who do will not be the unchurched community they desire to reach If they're like most churches they're looking at that disenfranchised 18-34 year old crowd. The people who answer will be seniors who appreciate the effort, but already have a home church.
I wanted to call the number and beg them to let me redesign it.

Now, I'm not 14 any more and I have mixed feelings on advertisements and the church. A snazzy design does not mean that a church has good theology. It doesn't make them love God more.

On the other hand, good design is not about being snazzy. It's about saying what you need to say clearly. That's why typesetting is important. If you make it hard or painful to read no one will read it. Your message doesn't get out. Design is, essentially, getting your message out as best you can. If your design is bad, the message is lost.

The church isn't about being cool. It isn't about the latest styles or colors. I know. But it does have a message. Shouldn't it be clear?

Universal Health Care: The lowest common denominator strikes again

I'd just like to take a moment to plug my roomie's post Four Reasons to Oppose Universal Health Care. Since most people won't click the link, I'll post some of her post here.

"1) You don't receive the best treatment available. A friend of mine who is Swedish (yes, they also have socialized health care) told me that several years ago, her little brother broke his arm. Since there were no doctors available to set it - they were all caring for other patients - he had to wait for three days. When they set it, the doctor who set it wasn't trained to set bones and did it incorrectly. It healed wrong, and had to be re-broken and reset several months later. People wait and wait for service, and they don't get what they need for months... as in the case of my friend's brother, or even for years.

2) People Take Advantage Of What's Given To Them (For Free)

...they go to the doctor for everything, whether it's a simple cold or the stomach flu. Why shouldn't they? It's free. All of the doctor visits, the over-the-counter drugs, it's free. It's the same thing everywhere: people who have free health care go to the doctor for everything. "

3) Doctors and Drug Companies Don't Offer Better Treatment or Find New Treatments

Doctors and nurses aren't paid to offer the best quality care, so they don't...It works similarly for drug companies: they're not paid to supply the best, more expensive drugs because they have a budget which won't and doesn't cover them. Doctors, research scientists and others affected don't want to spend valuable and unpaid time finding new solutions to old (or new) health problems.

4) The Provided Health Care DeterioratesDo you have bad health care now?

That's not going to change. If you can't afford good health care now, you're going to be waiting, probably a LONG time to receive health care with "free" health care. Those who can afford to take care of the problem will go somewhere where they have to pay however many thousands of dollars to fix the problem - and they'll get better."

Robin and I frequently have conversations about the "lowest common denominator" problem. What it works out to here is, "Since some people can only afford bad health care, let's make everyone have bad health care"

You can see the same thing in education where since they can't teach all the kids to be smart they get mad at the kids who are smart or dumb down the standards till you can't tell the difference.

I'm just baffled as to why people would have this much faith in our government that they want to trust them with our health care!

Seasons

In the summer I think that no other season can be so beautiful. But fall always amazes me and when it's fall I think fall must, must have the best colors. Normally I'm not a winter person, but this year for some reason I think it might be the prettiest season of all. And it's kind of nice to be able to enjoy winter too.. .

A little bit of this...

Evidently it's book season, I keep getting booksale advertisements to design. Designing things is a lot of fun when I have time to do it nicely and I get a fun store to design for. A lot of the advertisements are for farm equipment or building supplies. There's only so much excitement to be had when you're designing an ad for wood.

Sometimes ads are a little too informative. I just finished an ad that had more information on why there were two addresses on the advertisement than on what they're advertising!

And there's the ad I'm working on right now. It's a valentine's sale and they want a border (boo!) and rather than just telling people what is on sale, they're promising that there will be sale stickers on something. It might be x, y, or maybe even z and it the items will be different, different days. But the advertiser has decided that it's much better to potentially dissapoint the customer than to simply let them know what the specials are.

Ingrid Michaelson

There are people out there who always seem to know the cool music. They blog about harmonies and voice quality and innovativeness. I don't really know much about music, but the other day when I was doodling to The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson I had to look up the lyrics so I would get them right and I stumbled across Ingrid's myspace. So that evening I cranked up my computer speakers and flooded my living room with selections from her new/only cd, Girls and Boys. I liked it. A lot.

It's not the type of thing I normally go for. It's kind of emo, this business about fragile hearts and cutting through rib-cages, but I love Ingrid Michaelson's voice. It makes me think of Judy Garland and it feels old-fashioned without feeling old-fashioned at all.

It's great for reading or drawing and it makes me feel like my livingroom is actually the set of some meandering indi-flick. I bought her cd last night ($10 at Target, in their "up & coming" section) and it turns out to be good driving music as well.

My only suggestion for Miss Michaelson is that she fire her photographer. He or she makes her look ridiculous. And she should send a thank-you note to Border's for strategically cutting the absurdity out of the photographand making her look like the person who wrote all those songs.

But, Ingrid, keep whoever told you it would be smart to have a t-shirt design contest. It keeps you fun and trendy.

Random Mid-Day Thoughts

Another day, another doodle. I can't help myself, I get bored. The background design isn't entirely mine. I stole the squares off the internet. But that's what graphic designers do. We take a bunch of stuff and put it together and hopefully it looks good.
.

I've had a killer headache all morning, but I just took four (or six...but I think it was four) ibuprofin and that pretty much knocked it out, which is lucky since I have to drink soda if regular painkillers don't work. Soda makes my headache go away, but then it makes my other muscles hurt, so it's a loserly trade off. But, I have to be able to stare at a computer screen all day and if my legs hurt it's not so much a loss to productivity.

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And in a few minutes I'm going to go to lunch, so hopefully I'll come back to work feeling pain-free and inspired to do something spectacular.

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My brother is calling me tonight. He's in highschool and for one of his co-op classes he ask to ask someone questions about work or something. I already know he didn't want to use me for his paper, but I guess he couldn't find anyone else.

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Robin and I are going to pick out curtains tongiht. We've had other house/life issues that were more pressing, but it's good that we're finally going to have curtains. I always feel a little weird about not having them.

Well, off to lunch with me, now I just have to decide if I'm getting a deli sandwich at the grocery or a coffee and muffin in town. Probably better go with the grocery, it's cheaper.

Chipotle

I spent half my morning in a conversation about local business growth, tourism, and the economic implications of Wal-mart versus Meijer. I love these conversations. It's all quite fascinating.

So continuing on that theme I was reading an article on Chipotle about how the restaurant went from one restuarant in 1993 to the one of (or maybe the) most popular Mexican fast food restaurants in America.

I've only had one experience with the restaurant, my sisters and I ate there while I was home this Christmas. I give the food an 8. I give the atmosphere a 2. Not somewhere I'll be sitting down and eating a meal, but as fast food goes it's pretty delicious (albiet expensive).

Added bonus? You can order your food online and bypass the inevitably long line. How cool is that?

Back to business success, it's kind of understandable considering the man who created Chipotle (Steve Ells) graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, but then again other chefs from the school have bombed so badly that they had to call in super-chef Gordon Ramsey to save them (sorry CIA, it's true). But on the other hand, this man has managed to make a $4 billion off of only three menu items (tacos, burritos, salads). They are built subway style, with the customer picking out the meat and toppings but, unlike Subway, Chipotle won't be adding more menu items any time soon.

They also have this weird philosphy about having full time permanent workers that will move up in the company, rather than part time workers who are highschoolers and college students. Personally I can't imagine wanting to work my way up in the ranks of a fastfood restaurant no matter how trendy, but evidently it's someone's dream, because they have one of the lowest turnover rates in the industry. Though I have to ask, how hard is it really to have a lower turn over rate than Taco Bell?

Hidden Expenses

Comcast

I stole disturbing picture from MSNBC. In between projects I read a story there about hidden fees in various bills. I'm not exactly overwhelmed with shock. I mean, when I was a kid this kind of thing struck me as incredibly unfair.

Comcast

Why should a store be able to advertise candy for 99 cents when the truth is that to purchase said candy one would need a dollar ten? Or for that matter why should Comcast be able to advertise phone, cable, and internet for $99 when I'll really be paying well over $120 every month - before the promotional period ever ends?

c

- Oh, and by the way Comcast, you tore up our house when you installed the cable, you left cords hanging down all over the place in our basement, and the installer was rude. False advertising mayhaps?

Comcast

Comcast

When you're a little kid trying to buy a candy bar and coming up short because your weekly allowance didn't take taxes into consideration all of this seems a bit traumatic. Now it just seems annoying.

Comcast

What particularly interested me though, was that companies don't report the hidden fees, which makes it look like inflation is lower than it really is. It's also why budgeting still leaves you in the red. It doesn't matter that Comcast (yes Comcast, I am a little angry with you and so are other people) has an advertised deal that fits into your budget, because the real deal is $30 more than you can reasonably spend.

Comcast

Not that I personally have this problem, because I don't really budget, I just get feel for what I can buy in a pay period. If I notice that my bank account is getting lower instead of higher I cut something out. It works for me, but what about all those people who work so hard to be good and still end up being bad? Seems like a bummer.

Commuting

.................................................Normally it takes 20-30 minutes to get to work. Today it took an hour and 10. First it was because the roads weren't plowed and then I really don't know what happened. Because the streets were clear and the the traffic was still.

On new experiences and anti-social tendencies.

My weeks usually consist of going to work and coming home. My roommate might be at home with me or she might be with her boyfriend. I might end up walking down the street to buy a white-chocolate toffee mocha, or I might just microwave dinner. But mostly my life is an exercise in isolationism.

I think I traded lives with someone else this week. It was good times, but I don't think I could do it every week. Sometimes I wish I had a fuller social calander, and a lot of times other people tell me I need more friends (a lot of times), but the truth is I wouldn't spend so much time alone if I didn't actually enjoy time alone. I do, and that's ok. And after this week I'm definately going to need time to recharge. Especially after the wedding expo.

Alice is getting married this Tuesday...but the actual ceremony has been pushed back to May. For the me that is designing the invitations this is amazing - for the me that will have to spend the next four months in wedding land...

I'm glad to help, really, but wedding land can be a scary place. And today I was in it's capitol city. Tux rentals, dress preservation, florists, caterers, photographers, honeymoon packages...and a million brides.

Later Robin, Celi, and I went to see National Treasure. I wasn't all that impressed, but a medium Dr. Pepper, half a bad of Reeses Pieces, and two hours alone in the dark went a long way to helping me recover from having been around so many people.

I kind of wanted alone time tonight, but I also kind of wanted to go to a church service I found out about a couple weeks ago. I'd told Robin I was going and so she said she'd go with me. If she hadn't gone with me I'm not sure I'd have made it in the door, much less up the stairs to the actual meeting (so see Robin, it's as much your fault as it is mine).

We spent the first third of the service (which was a circle of chairs, 20 people, and a guitar) wishing we hadn't come. We could have done whatever we wanted...Robin could have spent more time with Celi, I could have read. You can always put these things off till the next week, right?

I ended up liking it though. They're reading through Acts, the oldest guy preached, but it was mostly just his thoughts on the passage and other people could share their thoughts on the passage. And the sermon/discussion ended up touching on things that have kinda been coming up other places...so that was...interesting. People were nice, we even stayed and talked afterwards...I don't know...it was...good. For those first twenty minutes I thought I was going to die, but I think I'll be back next week.

All day long...

Lately my boss has decided I should be using my doodles in more stuff. I don't know I get stressed out when I'm asked to use my doodles for official projects, but I do. It takes me about a thousand times longer than if I were just sketching it out for my own enjoyment and I'm never as satisified with it as if it had been just for fun. This one though I'm a little bit satisfied with, it turned out better than I thought it was going to.

Wide Awake

I used to drink a couple Starbucks Double Shots every day. I think I have a post or two extoling the virtues of the Double Shot. The downside would be the copious amount of sugar used to sweeten the espresso and cream. So I gave them up and tried to get more sleep instead.

I was doing fine, but then I went home for the holidays and I stayed up tp all hours while my family said, "Here have some sugar laden goodies - it's ok - it's the holidays!" Unfortunately sugar has the same affect on me whether it's the holidays or not. A week later I'm extremely tired and in pain - and not used to going to bed early-ish anymore.

So I bought a couple 5-hour energy drinks to help me deal not fall asleep driving to work (or at my desk). They have only 4 calories and no sugar. The taste isn't great, but it's better than cough syrup at roughly the same serving size. A little bit pricey, but not more than the Double Shot.

Downside: Energy is addictive. I never have any energy. I got 9½ hours of sleep last night and 8½ hours the night before...I still woke up tired, so I still bought a 5 hour energy drink. Then I forgot about it and couldn't figure out why I felt so good this morning. Then I remembered and it was a little depressing.

Extra depressing when you consider that around 5 it's going to wear of and I can either be tired again this evening and boring at dinner with Katie and then go to bed at 9:30 (again) or I can have another energy drink and kick frugal spending out the door by making this a $5 a day habit. I'm just so bloody tired of being tired.

Always on the radio...

Tackiness is not a tactic

Everybody, at some point in their life, will need to advertise something. Whether you're trying to get rid of mom's antique toilet paper holder at a garage sale or starting your own toilet paper holder business, you'll need to advertise in some fashion.

So I want you to know this, lock it away in your mind for future use, one day it will be important: Starbursts of any kind are the single tackiest thing to happen to advertising - ever.

If you are a hometown auctioneer or a used car salesman go ahead and use starbursts, no one respects your advertising any way. If you're anyone else, I don't care if you sell hardware on ebay, don't use starbursts!

Any time that you consider advertising something I was you to complete this exercise.

1. Decide who your target market is.
2. Look at advertisements also aimed at your target market.
3. Notice the lack of starbursts in all well known brand name advertisements.
4. Steal everything you like.

Particular things to look for:
* Color schemes (are they bold? cheery? monochromatic?)
* Fonts (what is the serif to sans serif ratio in the ad? In what context are italics used? How are the fonts spaced?)
* Wording (concise? flowery? personal?)
* Illustrations (simple or elaborate? photographs or drawings? bold or subtle?)
* What stands out (did this ad catch your eye because of the vibrant colors or because of the funky artwork?)


Finally, help make the world a better place by mentioning the tackiness of starbursts to your friends, family, and coworkers.

Tuesday is the new Monday

I can't even tell you how bored I am. I've wasted as much time as humanly possible. I've desgined all the ads in my in-box; I even took more time than usual in a mostly futile attempt to combine Amish advertising with modern designing. I've mentally gone over how much my portfolio sucks and what I need to do beef it up. And now I'm contemplating what kind of illustrations/clip art I could create.

Plus, I'm super tired. Yesterday I was super tired and I had a 5-hour energy drink and that helped quite a bit, but today I didn't have one because I thought I had energy. But I don't and I'm dying.

So, what should I draw? If you see this and it's past five, don't worry...Tuesday happens every week, I'll use it sometime.

Nothing to Say

Back in the day when christian radio was the only radio (i.e. highschool), Andrew Peterson had his one and only hit, Nothing to Say. And even though I dislike mornings on principle, whenever I'm driving to work and the sun's rising and lighting everything up - it makes me think of that song.

It's the only redeeming thing about mornings, really. You don't get that kind of lighting any other time of day. Monet used to paint pictures, not for the object in the picture, but for the way the light reflected off of it. As a child I found this deeply dissapointing. I'm not sure I can explain why, it just seemed like a betrayal of one's subject matter. But morning driving always makes me feel like Monet had it exactly right.
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(part of Monet's Rouen Cathedral series)

Nerd Art

For some reason when I have very little work to do, I have a whole lot of trouble focusing on it.

So I was browsing the internet and found Molecular Muse. Etsy was featuring her Dopamine necklace for valentines day.

That's right kids, it's a pendant in the shape of a dopamine molecule.

And, if it so happens that your sweetie isn't nerd enough to appreciate this necklace there are a wide variety of molecular designs to give to the nerds you love.

There's the Serotonin necklace, for your emo friend you want to just shut up and smile.

M

A wine decanter with a design related to the ethanol molecule, since the ethanol molecule is found in alcoholic beverages and no one would be confused and think it related to a modern fuel source.

Chocolate - theobromine molecule - earrings, for people you'd like to dissapoint by not buying $40 of actual chocolate.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

And, of course, much more. All expensive. All arriving in a recycled green box and with a little diagram of your molecule.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Something borrowed, something blue...

My friend, Alice (Lindsay), is getting married in a couple months and I'm designing her invites as quickly as I conceivably can. I've scoured the web for sample wedding invitations so that I know what is appropriate, traditional, and of-the-moment.

Today an advertiser put in their annual wedding supply advertisement. For no apparent reason they wanted a wedding border. Borders are wrong. I don't care how many are provided for you in Microsoft Publisher, they are morally repugnant. Fortunately there is no such thing as a wedding border, at least not at my place of employment. Turns out, we don't have much in the way of wedding clip art at all. So this time I had to conduct a photo search of brides and grooms so I could appropriately decorate the ad. We'll see how it goes, I gathered from my boss that Amish weddings are not like traditional American weddings, but I've never seen an Amish wedding....so traditional American it is.

I've spent the past three days entirely immersed in wedding land and I've got 20 days of invitation designing/printing to go. Wish me luck.

A week and a half of vacation is to die for.

I ended up driving back on New Year's Eve, I stayed at my parents an extra day and went geocaching with my sisters. It was a pretty pathetic attempt.

I "helped" with a youth group New Year's party at church - which means I chatted with some of the kids and joined in the mass grimace when Josh got a tooth knocked out through his upper lip. I left at 11:30 because the snow was getting bad.

On New Years I went shopping with Robin and her sister, Cheryl, to find a dress for graduation/senior banquet. We talked her in to two.

Now I'm back at work with a little space heater under my desk to fend off hypothermia - and I don't even mind. The holiday was just that satisfying.